It is difficult for me to compare the benevolence of Julius Hofmann with the actions of the current leaders of North Carolina State University and the University Endowment Fund.

Hofmann, the first dean of the NCSU College of Forestry, purchased 79,000 acres of pocosins and forest land, and in 1934 donated it to the Forestry Foundation for the benefit of the university in perpetuity for use in forest research and as an income source. It has done so for 80 years.

Now in a very short-sighted decision, the state-owned land has been sold to an Illinois agribusiness in a secret deal for $150 million. The prospectus of sale brags, “With today’s global grain shortage, the type of virgin organic soil found in the Hofmann Forest is at a premium. After reserving roughly 9,000 acres for development, the Forest would theoretically have 70,000 acres to convert to agricultural uses. Due to numerous mitigating factors, such as wetlands areas, one could conceivably convert 50,000 to 60,000 acres to agricultural use.”

Read that quotation again. The 9,000 acres for development will be commercial ventures, shopping plazas, a golf course and thousands of homes in housing developments along 3.5 miles of frontage along U.S. 17 near Deppe Park. The prospectus hints at logging timber from Deppe Park.

The aforementioned “70,000 acres to convert to agricultural uses,” consists of converting a sustainable forest into cornfields and mineral mining sites.

Hofmann Forest serves to filter and purify the rainwater falling and feeding the headwaters of the White Oak, Trent and New rivers. With the forest harvested and developed, there will be a significant stormwater runoff of pesticides, fertilizer and virgin organic soil into these three rivers, causing further closing of shellfish areas and severely impacting the loss of fresh-water replenishment to the aquifers under Hofmann Forest. Saltwater infiltration into our aquifers will then become a likely risk.

I don’t think Julius Hofmann would approve of this travesty committed on the citizens of North Carolina and, as I am, would be very disappointed in the sale of this very valuable public land to commercial interests.